Gravel-hopper.



F. B. KLUNKER.

GRAVEL HOPPER.

APPLICATION FILED JAN, 27, 1913.

Patented Sept. 16, 1913.

EOLUMBIA PLANOGRAPH co.,wASHlNuTON, n. c.

WED STATES PATEN error;

'FREDERICK E. KLUNKER, OFCANON CITY, COLORADO.

GnAvEL-Horrna Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented Sept. 16, 1913.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, FREDERICK E. KLUN- tains to make and use the same.

. This invention is a feed regulator capable of use in a variety of waysand in machines for widely different purposes, but employed byme in connection with a concrete mixer, and its object is to produce an improved con struction of hopper whereby the gravel may be fed to the mixing machinery more or less rapidly as desired. This object iscarried out by constructing the hopper and its bottom in the manner hereinafter more fully described and claimed, and as shown in the drawings wherein Figure l is a side elevation of the hopper and a cross section of the mixing machinery to which it delivers; and Fig. 2 is a vertical section on the line 22 of Fig. 1. Fig. 3 is a horizontal section on the line 3-3 of Fig. 1. Fig. 4 is a vertical section through the hopper and its bottom, taken at right angles to the plane on which the section of Fig. 2 is taken. Fig. 5 is a side elevation, viewed from the reverse side from that shown in Fig. 1. Fig. 6 is a detail which will be referred to hereinafter.

In the drawings I have shown my improved hopper H as mounted upon the upper end of a receptacle which in the present instance is a trough T wherein on a shaft S is carried a mixer broadly designated by the letter M, but it will be obvious that this type of receptacle is shown merely for sake of illustration and my improved hopper and means for delivering the material therefrom may be attached to any form of receptacle desired.

Coming now to the details of the present invention, the hopper II has three inclined sides 1, 2, and 3, and an upright front wall 4, the lower portions of'all its sidesbeing also upright as seen at 5, 6 and 7 and the opposite upright side walls 5 and 7 projecting beyond the lower edge of the front wall 4 at 8 and 9. Between these projecting portions is a discharge opening through which the material poured into the hopper shall finally pass out, under the lower edge of the front wall 4, and in order to regulate its passage I provide a plate 10 having upright slots 11 in its body through which pass thumb screws 12 engaging said front wall 4, so that when these screws are loosened the plate may be adjusted higher or lower in a manner which will be clear. In the illustration herewith, the hopper entire is supported on the receptacle '1 by means of two brackets 13 and 14 at each side, and the shape of these brackets will be such that the hopper will stand above the open upper end of the receptacle but a little to one side of the same so that the material flowing out the mouth of the hopper will drop into such receptacle. In-the present instanceit falls into a trougl1shaped receptacle and passes through the mixing mechanism M, which need not be amplified as it forms no part of the present invention.

The bottom of the hopper above described is by preference made of sheet metal, and as best seen in the several views of the drawings, it comprises a plurality (such as three) of steps 16, 17 and 18 connected by uprights or risers l9 and 20; upright sides 21 rising from the steps 17 and 18 or in fact from all steps excepting the highest; and horizontal flanges 22 projecting straight outward from the sides 21 and passing through slots 23 in the side walls 5 and 7 of the hopper and in the extensions 8 and 9 of said wallsthe slots being longer than the flanges so that the entire bottom may have some degree of movement therein. In order to firmly support the bottom and the contents resting thereon, and so that said flanges will not bear frictionally on the lower edges of the slots 23, I may provide rollers 24 carried by the brackets 13 and 14, or perforated ears 25 rising from the flanges 22 and sliding on guide rods 26 carried by said brackets, or

both; and it will be clear that if this device is used for sand and gravel and other heavy v mechanism with some source of power (as v mechanism, for instance), and in this wheel is a series of holes 32 (Fig. 6) in wh ch 1s adjust-ably mounted awrist pin 33 which is connected by a pitinan rod 34 with a pin 35 carried by a bracket 36 attached to one of said flanges 28 or to the bottom in any suitable manner. It follows that the rotation of the power wheel 30 causes the reciprocation of the hopper bottom on its guides, whatever the form of the latter and there fore the material fed into this hopper will be delivered out its mouth under the lower edge of the plate 10- and over the lowest step. 18 of said bottom at a speed dependent upon the position at which said plate is set, the number and vigor of the reciprocations imparted to the bottom by the crank Wheel 30 and the size of the particles of material.

A further description of the operation of this device is thought to be unnecessary, and

the details of its construction may be modiareceptacle, a hopper whose body has an through its frontwall, the side walls of the hopper being extended beyond its front a wall and having horizontal slots, and a gate iol; QdJUStlIIg the size of said openlng, of

a botton niade in teps descending toward and extending through sald openln' and having upright sides and outt-urned flanges projecting through said slots,.brackets secured to the side walls of said hopper and supporting'itabove said receptacle, Zrollers journaled in [said brackets beneath. said flanges and holding the latter out of 0011-.

tact with the edges'of said slots, guide rods 7 connecting said brackets at points above the flanges, perforated ears rising from the lat. 'ter and slidably mounted onsald rods, a

bracket depending from one of said flanges,

and means connected with this bracket for reciprocating said bottom. 7

In testimony whereof I have hereunto set my hand in presence of twosubscribing witnesses. hed to an extent consistent with the follow- Witnessesr E. M. WARD, M. EVANs. o

(Ionics of this patent maybe obtained for five cents each, by addressing the Commissioner of Patents,

Washington, D. O. i 

